This report of a 30-day review of the New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), identifies significant structural limitations to the Office that have affected the agency’s ability to fulfill its mandate to efficiently establish New York State’s cannabis marketplace. The assessment makes comprehensive recommendations to end the bottleneck of license applicants and improve communication with applicants and licensees – transforming the Office’s capacity to expand safe, legal cannabis operations across the state.

On March 31, 2021, the Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA) was signed into law, legalizing adult-use cannabis in New York State. The MRTA established the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) as the primary regulatory entities overseeing New York State’s cannabis market from seed to sale.

Since the legalization of cannabis in New York State, the State’s adult-use cannabis market has struggled to get off the ground. The OCM has faced significant criticism over its operations, lack of transparency, and the failure to build a robust and equitable market. The unanticipated rapid proliferation of thousands of illegal cannabis retailers has slowed the growth of the legal market and poses a number of safety concerns for consumers of adult-use cannabis. 

In March 2024, New York's State Governor Hochul convened a multi-agency task force to assess how to improve public engagement and restore trust in OCM. The task force included government leaders from multiple State agencies with extensive operations experience and expertise in organizational redesign for agency success. Over several weeks, the task force conducted interviews with executives at OCM, employees, and external stakeholders, reviewed regulations, public guidance, and Cannabis Control Board (CCB) meetings, and designed high level process maps for adult-use retail license applications. 

This report details current OCM operations and procedures and primarily focuses on improvements of general agency operations and a review of the adult-use retailer licensing process. 

Key Findings 
Specifically, the task force found OCM had: 

1. Limited depth in administration; 
2. Failed to centralize licensing operations; 
3. Created complex and obscure licensing requirements; 
4. Provided sparse customer service; 
5. A lack of data and key performance indicators (KPI); 
6. And utilized multiple disparate IT systems. 

These findings have been exemplified through OCM’s often confusing decisions regarding agency operations. Despite other agencies sharing and relying on similar existing application and licensing systems, OCM’s relatively inexperienced leadership chose to develop new systems which contributed to a slow down of agency operations. Yet by creating new structures rather than implementing approaches based on best practices, the leadership wasted valuable time and resources. Further, iterative decision-making and continuous refinement of policy have caused implementation challenges and resulted in confusion, difficulties, and delays for well-intentioned line staff as well as applicants.